Exodus chapter 34.
This chapter reminds me of 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 starting with verse 14 where we are told not to be BOUND together with unbelievers because righteousness and lawlessness don't go together. And light and darkness don't go together. God calls us out from among those practicing sin and from unbelievers for fear we will eventually conform to their practices. What's hard is we live amongst nice unbelievers so we can’t imagine God ever condemning them so we associate with them and soon end up compromising some of our beliefs because we enjoy the Friendship of the other. It's Satan's tool for helping us gradually walk away from the Lord. 2nd Corinthians 15:33 says don't be misled, Bad Company corrupts good morals or good character. We have two callings:
1. We are called out from amongst unbelievers meaning we're not to associate with them as if they are not unbelievers. We have to be Mission minded when we are around unbelievers. We can't get sucked into thinking that because they're nice that their way of thinking is not wrong. When we fall into this thinking we end up in the relationship without being mission-minded therefore have no accountability around us to ensure we are staying focused on the Lord.
2. Our second calling is to be among sinners so that we can love them to Christ which is to be done with joint effort so that we have accountability, so that we are less likely to slip into sin.
7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
I dont want my past sins to affect my children or their children. I have went to church with both my kids at different times, they do not go regularly. I want to be a witness to them.
Brian, I want to encourage you to not underestimate the power of your testimony to your children in your walk with the Lord. They watch and see. The verse you reference is a hard one due to translation. Did God mean that your sins are passed down to next generations like the sin of Adam was? Or does He mean that we often share our sins intentionally or unintentionally in what we teach and show our children – like prejudice, for example? What He clearly says is that He will deal with sin in each individual in each generation.
v17 God tells them not to make molten gods. The ark of the covenant which represented the presence of God was made of beaten/hammered gold while the gods of the Canaanites were made of molten gold. Molten gold is melted down and poured into a mold – sort of like some of today’s churches with melted down spirituality. The try to mold God into what they think He should be to excuse their sins. God chose to represent himself in beaten gold. To me, this is a picture of Jesus – beaten and nailed to the Cross for you & me.
Just to bring a smile to your face, I want to share this with you from a pastor … in v 20a, God speaks of redeeming an ass (or donkey, depending on translation version) with a lamb. If the slain Lamb speaks of Jesus, guess what that makes us. Have a blessed day, everyone!
After spending time with God, the face of Moses was shining and the people of Israel could see the difference in him. The question that I have for myself today is whether I am allowing God to shine through me for those around to see the influence of God or do I look and sound more like one of the many grumblers who are referred to as a stiff-necked people.
Thank you all for the insightful comments you bring. It really helps give me a deeper understanding of what I am reading and how to interpret and apply it to my life!
In my past, I have struggled with staying in relationships that led me to sin. Today I have much better, healthier, faith based relationships, but I still have to be careful at work. At times in the teachers lounge I find myself getting wrapped up in gossip. Negative talk about other teachers, students, parents, etc. I have participated in my fair share of it and I’ve also sat and listened without saying anything. Today I eat lunch in my classroom, alone. It’s strange to my coworkers but I’m just not sure how to navigate the things they say/how they say it. I want to shine Christ’s light and I’m not sure why the confrontation of stopping that negative talk scares me….